Sightings Articles
Headlines as Headlines -- Martin E. Marty
Belaboring the theme that R. Scott Appleby treated with his typical sense of balance in Sightings last week, let me return to the topic of how media treat clerical abuse scandals. I look forward to the day when we can move beyond this urgent theme. ...
May 20, 2002
Is the Media Anti-Catholic? -- Scott Appleby
The scandal involving the sexual abuse of children and minors by a small minority of priests, and the attempted cover-up of these sins and crimes by some American bishops, is now in its fourth month. Along the way friends and colleagues have asked me...
May 16, 2002
Taxing Situations -- Martin E. Marty
Motivated by panic over the Goldwater presidential campaign, the editors of The Christian Century briefly in 1964 supported Lyndon B. Johnson, and said so on their cover. Roughshod-riding evangelist Billy James Hargis then sicced the IRS on the magaz...
May 13, 2002
A Word from Concerned Catholics -- Rosemary P. Carbine and Anthea D. Butler
Together with the church as the people of God, we as lay Catholics want to express solidarity with those abused, oppressed, and silenced by ordained church officials. We are saddened by the ongoing lack of pastoral care shown by the church to victims...
May 8, 2002
Bad Timing, Worse Deeds -- Martin E. Marty
These ought to be good days for "institutional religion." Signs in many directions point to fresh curiosities about religion. The Religion and Ethics News Weekly television people and U. S. News and World Report in April released poll data whose bott...
May 6, 2002
April is the Cruelest Month -- Donald E. Miller
Every April I find myself grieving over the levels of violence of which humanity is capable. April 6, 1994, was the first day of the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis by their Hutu neighbors. April 24 is the day on which Armenians commemorate the g...
May 2, 2002
Out of Bounds -- Martin E. Marty
Only two months ago William A. Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights listed "The Ten Worst Anti-Catholic Atrocities of 2002" in America (February 18). Some examples certainly were atrocious, e.g. a Time Out New York listing of...
April 30, 2002
Dismantling Academic Freedom -- Philip P. Arnold
A memorandum dated 30 November 2001 was sent from Governor George Pataki's office through the State University of New York University Counsel to all presidents of New York State operated campuses and community colleges. It stated that all contacts wi...
April 26, 2002
The Myth of the Myth of Freedom -- Martin E. Marty
Two running and highly visible examples of religious groups under governmental investigation or court summons are Islamic charities, which may or may not be funneling funds to terrorist groups, and Catholic dioceses, which may or may not be guilty of...
April 22, 2002
The Dilemma of a Faithless Faith -- James L. Evan
We don't hear much about orthodoxy these days. The notion comes from a time when the church was able to exercise control over the beliefs and practices of its members. The idea of a binding body of religious teaching is simply untenable in the modern...